Implementation of a distributed, model-based integrated asset management system

This paper presents the development of a generic framework for asset maintenance management, and an object model for the maintenance management of roofing systems as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the framework The model builds upon the Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) to define object requirements and relationships for the exchange and sharing of maintenance information between applications. The paper explores the implementation of the developed maintenance management models through the development of a distributed, model-based integrated system. It describes the set of inter-connecting components forming a typical or reference system architecture for integrated distributed systems. It describes the Jigsaw Distributed System (JDS) version 0.6, as the implementation environment of the reference architecture, which facilitates a wide range of data exchanges and software interoperability. The paper describes the development of a generic Asset Management Tool (AMT) prototype data client application that can initiate data exchanges with a number of data servers (including MicroROOFER, Microsoft Project, and files that can be used by several other applications), thus demonstrating software interoperability in the Facilities Management (FM) domain. Finally the paper presents an evaluation and testing scenario for the prototype application.